'Great job from BCCI and Indian government': Stokes reveals Rehan Ahmed's visa issue is resolved
'Great job from BCCI and Indian government': Stokes reveals Rehan Ahmed's visa issue is resolved
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Ben Stokes on Wednesday revealed that leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed’s visa issue was resolved after intervention from the Indian government and the BCCI. Ahmed, the spinner of Pakistani descent, was forced to enter India on a two-day visa on Monday at Rajkot after it was found out that he only had a single-entry visa. Having already entered India once for the first two Tests before leaving for Abu Dhabi during the break between the second and third match, Ahmed was ineligible to enter India. He was later issued a two-day visa as a temporary arrangement.
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Now the spinner has managed to complete his paperwork ahead of the start of the third Test against India at Rajkot.
“For any individual having to wait for that is always an anxious period, but thankfully, we got it through this morning, and great job from the guys at the airport for giving him his visa to get through initially, and everyone at the BCCI and the government to get the visa quickly,” Stokes said on the eve of the third Test.
“We do not have to worry anymore about those issues, we were very confident that we would get the visa for Rehan before the game started,” he added.
Before the start of the series, off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, who is also of Pakistani descent, had also faced visa issue and was forced to enter India only on the third day of the first Test at Hyderabad.
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Stokes applauded the way Ahmed handled the matter.
“There was no thoughts about not playing him this week, the great thing about youth is that they just take everything in their stride,” Stokes said.
“He handled a situation that could’ve affected quite a lot of people in a different way, very well for such a young kid. Rehan, in the Test matches that he has played, he has done very well and he has solved everything that we have asked him.”
